Mentoring Matters: An Innovative Approach to Infusing Mentorship in a Social Work Doctoral Program

Social work doctoral students must identify how to prioritize their time and how to gain the many qualifications required by the academic job market. Mentoring has long been recognized as an effective strategy for promoting academic success and degree completion in doctoral studies. This article describes three student-led initiatives in a social work doctoral program that sought to infuse mentorship throughout the program. The content of these innovative initiatives is discussed, as well as their implications for social work doctoral education.     

Addiction Social Work Fellowship Program in Canada

Substance use disorders (SUD) disproportionally contribute to the global social and economic cost of disease; however, their treatment has been inadequate in large part due to an enduring research to practice gap in which competencies for treating and preventing SUDs are often lacking from social work education curricula. Training social workers in managing SUDs has been separated from nurse and physician training, partly due to the long-standing divide between the behavioral health and medical care system. Recently, a new interdisciplinary fellowship in addiction social work, nursing and medicine has been established in Vancouver, Canada. We describe the novel fellowship program and outline initial impact of the training on knowledge and skills in addiction social work from our qualitative evaluation of the fellowship. We conclude that training social workers, and other allied health professionals alongside physicians and nurses may extend the reach of this type of training program even further.     

A Stakeholder Analysis of Admission in a Baccalaureate Social Work Program

Social work programs shape the profession through their admission practices. A stakeholder analysis of a baccalaureate social work program was conducted to seek stakeholder perspectives on admission practices through interviews and focus groups with 53 participants representing seven stakeholder groups. Results suggest that external stakeholders such as field instructors, social service employers, and adjunct faculty members are not widely represented in the BSW admission process. Four categories of stake-holder expectations for social work admission were found: gatekeeping for professional suitability, a process of self-reflection for students, an indicator of educational quality for the social work program, and progression of students’ professional socialization as a social worker. Findings provide insights to inform faculty as they oversee social work admission.     

Evaluating Distance Learning in Social Work Education

Fifty-seven MSW students enrolled in two different practice courses were exposed to approximately equal amounts (five 4-hour sessions) of live, in-class instruction and two-way interactive televised instruction. Separate post-course evaluations of both teaching methods, using a previously published measure of instructional quality, significantly favored live instruction over televised distance learning. More empirical research demonstrating the potential benefits of distance learning technology is urgently needed prior to the widespread adoption of these methods.     

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning

In response to a growing diversity of opinion regarding educational models and essential content in clinical social work education, this paper offers a perspective concerning graduate clinical curricula. Part I, the foundational piece of the paper, discusses the definition of clinical social work, social work’s core orientation and values, and influential contextual issues. The interrelated core orientations guiding knowledge and skill development are identified as the person-in-situation perspective and the concept of relationship. Based on this foundation, Part II identifies elements of a contemporary biopsychosocial knowledge base and essential clinical skills. This paper is intended to stimulate dialogue about a topic of importance to the profession and the clients it serves.     

Blended Learning in Rural Social Work Education: Reflections from a New Australian Bachelor of Social Work Course

This paper explores the developmental stages and phases of a new blended learning social work course at a rural Australian university. The background to the development of the discipline will be presented, with an exploration of the challenges and outcomes of designing an interactive online environment for a single cohort of on-campus and distance students. Themes explored cover engaging students, motivation, acculturation and facilitation. The paper concludes with the presentation of data from wave one of a longitudinal survey to ensure student expectations are being met, while at the same time providing an accredited programme of study.     

Learning to Be a Social Worker in a Non-traditional Placement: Critical Reflections on Social Work,Professional Identity and Social Work Education in England

Drawing upon findings from a national evaluation of student social workers' experiences of ‘non-traditional’ placements with a national charity, this article considers what such placements can contribute to the development of an individual and collective sense of professional identity for social work. This is explored against the background of current developments in social work education in England, including changes to the requirements for practice placements and the introduction of ‘fast-track’ routes to qualification, preparing students for social work in statutory children's services. The article suggests that with the establishment of The College of Social Work and the development of the Professional Capabilities Framework, relevant to all social workers throughout their careers, the profession has an opportunity to promote a concept of social work in England beyond that required by statutory sector employers; and that practice learning in non-statutory and non-traditional settings has an important role to play in this.     

Zine-Making as a Pedagogical Tool for Transformative Learning in Social Work Education

As a collaborative endeavor between teacher and student, we reflect on the process of creating and sharing social justice oriented zines in our classroom. Zines can be used as a pedagogical tool for awareness, education, empowerment and transformation. Created in the form of self-published work of original and/or appropriated texts and images, zines are usually presented in small booklet format in a variety of ways, from computer-printed text to comics to handwritten text. When shared, they represent a subversive form of media to deconstruct stereotypes and hegemonic representations perpetuated by mainstream media. Through our classroom project, we found that zines provided an opportunity for creative expression, connection and collaboration. As an experiential technique, they can serve to raise student self-awareness and allow for a broader understanding of power hierarchies. As a direct action tool they can be useful for promoting active class participation in the movement for social justice. We advocate for integrating arts-based projects in social work education in order to promote more embodied ways of learning and to facilitate personal and societal transformation.     

Using a Book Group to Facilitate Student Learning About Social Work

The focus of this short paper is the increasingly popular format of the book group. This format has been used on an undergraduate social work programme in the UK with the aim of engaging students, as some enjoy reading fiction for pleasure but find it harder to read social science. The BA Social Work Book Group has met regularly to discuss non-social science books, such as novels and autobiographies. A specific example is presented of a best-selling novel with significant social work content (J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy) and the book group's discussion of this. The strengths and limitations of book groups in social work education are drawn out.     

The Centrality of Social Presence in Online Teaching and Learning in Social Work

Social presence is the extent to which persons are perceived to be real and are able to be authentically known and connected to others in mediated communication. A full appreciation of the concept offers social work educators an antidote to skepticism of online learning and provides an avenue for modeling the development and maintenance—indeed, the transformation—of collaborative helping relationships essential to practice. This article opens with a discussion of the place of social presence in its larger conceptual, theoretical, and empirical context and presents identified components along with concrete examples for effectively building social presence into online teaching. We conclude with a discussion of real-world challenges and tensions and pose a series of questions for future research.     

Non-traditional Student Retention: Exploring Perceptions of Support in a Social Work Graduate Program

This study examines non-traditional student perceptions of social support in the context of a group intervention offered by a graduate program at a predominantly white university in the southern United States of America. The goal of the group intervention was to enhance perceptions of social support, as measured by a standardized instrument administered pre and post the group intervention. Data analysis showed no significant differences in pre–post changes in perceptions of social support between intervention and comparison groups. A follow-up survey questionnaire administered to group intervention participants provided feedback that shed light on these unanticipated results: it is recommended that future interventions for improving non-traditional student retention focus on supporting the development of social support networks among incoming and first-year graduate students.     

Five-Way Experiential Learning Model for Social Work Education

Social workers exercise their practice skills by helping clients find strengths and solutions. In order to comprehensively practice skills for diverse client situations, it is crucial to practice and fine-tune the applications of various therapeutic approaches through clinical drills. This paper presents an experiential learning model, expanded from Kolb's Learning Cycle, which fits the dynamic pedagogical needs of the social work profession. It examines the implementation of the use of the ‘Five-Way Experiential Learning Model’ based on practice learning through personal reflections and professional evaluations. This practice learning study helped 79 MSW students define their ‘five-way learning’ and to analyze its impact on their acquisition of social work skills and clinical practice competencies. This process demonstrates the importance of the transtheoretical connection to achieve a better understanding of clients' situations through the process of change and peer input. Discussions will focus on the model elements, results on experiential learning, and ethical considerations.     

Learning Style Preferences of Undergraduate Social Work Students

It has been identified that undergraduate social work students have distinctive learning needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning style preferences of a group of undergraduate social work students enrolled at a large Australian university. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory, Index of Learning Styles and Success Types Learning Style Type Indicator was distributed to 606 students enrolled in an undergraduate social work degree at one metropolitan Australian university. A total of 116 questionnaires were returned, providing a response rate of 19.14%. The results indicated that converging and assimilating, intuitive and sensing, thinking, judging and perceiving learning styles were favoured by this group of social work students. It is recommended that educators understand and take into consideration the learning style preferences of undergraduate social work students when developing curricula and evaluating teaching approaches, especially when planning and implementing education initiatives. This will help create effective learning environments, appropriate learning opportunities and a contemporary curriculum for social work students.     

Learning Clinical Practice by Simulation in Law and Social Work

This paper discusses the development and evaluation of a package that was designed to simulate the Family Court of Australia. The origins of the simulation derive from the problems associated with access to the Family Court as it is a closed court, and the need to examine the relationship between two professions that work in the Family Court. The point of the simulation was to examine the unexpected effects which may not be obvious from simple discussion of the subject. The simulation provided a situation where the less rational aspects of court work could manifest themselves. Law students found many new interpersonal problems when they were confronted with the idiosyncrasies of clients, and trainee counsellors found the intricacies of the law daunting.     

Backing Australia's Future: Teaching and Learning in Social Work

Abstract

It is universally expected that universities will strive for quality in teaching and learning. Over the past 25 years, massive changes to higher education have impacted on these institutions. We now have a mass higher education system, a knowledge-based economy, increased technology, and the internationalization of education accompanied by increased student enrolments and political expectations of enhanced graduate outcome measures. These changes pose challenges to developing, updating, and improving the quality of teaching and learning. This new policy environment confronts social work educators as they determine how best to deliver quality professional education. The present paper discusses the concepts underpinning the Australian government's paper Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future as a background to exploring the tensions arising in current professional expectations and criteria for social work programs as they make the transition from old to new paradigms in classroom teaching and field education.     

Educating Social Workers for Practice in Integrated Health Care: A Model Implemented in a Graduate Social Work Program

ABSTRACT

This article introduces a curricular innovation, the Integrated Health Scholars Program (IHSP), developed to prepare master's-level social work students for practice in integrated health care settings, and presents preliminary findings related to students’ self-reported program competencies and perceptions. IHSP, implemented in a research-intensive school of social work in a large midwestern public university, includes specialized course work, interprofessional education across health science disciplines, and field practicum in integrated health care settings. Curricular components support stepwise learning and follows the British Columbia model of interprofessional education learning tiers: exposure, immersion, and skill mastery. Despite IHSPs successful development in a well-resourced, supportive environment, challenges facing our profession's ability to develop and sustain training of MSW students in integrated health care are discussed.     

Curriculum Mapping in a Social Work Program With the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards

In a curriculum mapping project, the mapping process of an MSW program is documented and linked with the Council on Social Works Education’s 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards competencies. It starts with the background of creating a mapping process for sequencing and integrating a series of assessment tasks with mapping exercises. An example focusing on this program’s clinical specialization is provided. Curriculum mapping is defined as a step-by-step process of visualizing and evaluating teaching content for curriculum studies, from generalist to specialization. This process explains how to map and improve social work curricula with component analyses and provides suggestions for planning future mapping visualization exercises prior to reaffirmation studies.     

Learning Global Social Conditions: A Broader View for Social Work Students

Today, students are increasingly interested in global issues. To meet this need, social work education must find models to incorporate international content into social work curriculum. This article presents a pedagogical experience to familiarize social work students with comparative social welfare from a global perspective. In a graduate seminar, students utilized data from the United Nations and the World Bank to examine social conditions in different parts of the world in order to gain a broader view of global social conditions. The result was a compilation of profiles highlighting the social conditions of developing countries across different regions of the globe. Furthermore, based on students’ feedback, the benefits of doing such comparative study and the implications for internationalizing social work curriculum are discussed.